The Upper Palaeolithic at Trenčianske Bohuslavice, Western Carpathians, Slovakia

Abstract

Trenčianske Bohuslavice Gravettian site has been known since the early 1980s, with possibly the longest sequence of Upper Palaeolithic human occupation in the region, including a peculiar assemblage of lithic tools composed of bifacial leaf points. This paper presents the results of the 2017 excavation season that produced new data on the absolute chronology, stratigraphy, paleobotany, archaeology, and archaeozoology of the site. We found that the earliest occupation most probably belongs to the Aurignacian. This is followed by two Late Gravettian layers and the layer that yielded the bifacial leaf points. An Early Epigravettian layer dated to 26 kya seals the sequence. The succession of biological remains and geological evidence enabled the reconstruction of a cooling climate and disappearing boreal forest, which corresponded well with the development of the Last Glacial Maximum.

Population mobility and lithic tool diversity in the Late Gravettian – The case study of Lubná VI (Bohemian Massif)

“…However, this strategy has never previously been observed in Central European Gravettian sites, even at Pavlovian localities where the dominant raw materials were transported similarly from large distances, comparable to the Lubná VI case (Novak 2016;Svoboda 1997;Verpoorte 2005). The proportion of burin spalls in Lubná VI is far higher than at other central European Gravettian sites (Moreau 2010;Novák 2004;2008;Nuzhny 2009;Oliva 2009;Verpoorte 2005;Wilczyński et al, 2012;2020b). This may be the result of a highly curated lithic assemblage with restricted diversity of artefacts due to the frequency of long distance movements (Shott 1986).…”

Solving Stone Age puzzles: From artefacts and sites towards archaeological interpretations

“…13.2, 13.4) and formed part of the middle Gravettian layer of finds (Žaár 2007). The radiocarbon method dates the current middle (main) layer of the Trenčianske Bohuslavice site to a period between 25,650 and 22,500 BP (Bárta 1988;Verpoorte 2002;Žaár 2007;Vlačiky et al 2013;Wilczyński et al 2020). The calcareous nodule was found in a bag with 22 pieces of limestone that were not coloured by any pigments.…”

“…1.1: 12; 13.1) is one of the most important Gravettian sites in the Trenčín region, as well as in Slovakia (e.g. Vlačiky et al 2013;Wilczyński et al 2020). It is located on the right side of the River Váh, in the valley of the Stream Bošáčka (210 m a.s.l.).…”

“…Archaeological research was mainly carried out by Juraj Bárta (e.g. 1986c;, and later by Ondrej Žaár (2007), Martin Vlačiky et al (2013) and Jaroslav Wilczyński et al (2020).…”

The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess

“…The fluvial record, which preserves many of the Paleolithic artifacts recovered in Europe, is predominantly composed of coarse‐grained deposits that obscure the spatial arrangements of sites. By contrast, the low‐energy deposition of Late Pleistocene loess‐forming dust is known to finely preserve archeological sites with minimal spatial redistribution that can often be refitted to an impressive degree (Roebroeks et al ., 1997; Vallin et al ., 2001) and are even occasionally suitable for usewear and residue analyses (Sano, 2012; Pawlik and Thissen, 2017; Wilczyński et al ., 2020). Loess records are also excellent repositories of faunal prey, fire features, pits, habitation structures and early hominin burials that provide singular insights into local hominin behavioral patterns (Iakovleva and Djindjian, 2005; Händel et al ., 2009; Trinkaus and Buzhilova, 2018; Fewlass et al ., 2019).…”